The invention relates to a sewing machine, and more particularly relates to a pattern selecting device of a sewing machine, in which the operating dial may be rotated over a range of rotation angle of 360.degree. so as to obtain much more varied stitch patterns from a limited number of pattern cams. Further in this invention, the minimum rotation angle of the operating dial is made considerably large to select one of the pattern cams, and, therefore, the associated pattern selecting cam may be made simplified to provide smaller push angles for operating cam followers. Thus, the machine operator may easily and smoothly operate the pattern selecting device without need of much operating force. Further in this invention, another simplified pattern selecting device has been suggested to additionally obtain further modified stitch patterns.
In the conventional zigzag sewing machines having many pattern cams to be selected by the operating dial of onerotation type, the minimum rotation angle of the operating dial for selecting a pattern cam is considerably small. Therefore, the pattern selecting cam operated in association with the operating dial is very complex, and requires relatively large push angles for operating the cam followers. As a result, the machine operator has to exert a considerable manual force to operate the operating dial at each time in order to select so many pattern cams. Further, according to the prior art, the number of varied stitch patterns is very limited.